Server and method for controlling server

ABSTRACT

A display apparatus and a server which implements an interactive system are disclosed. The server includes a communicator which receives text information corresponding to a user voice collected at the display apparatus from the display apparatus, and a controller which extracts an utterance component from the text information and controls so that a query to search contents is generated using the extracted utterance component and transmitted to an external server which categorizes metadata of the content under each item and stores the same, in which the controller generates the query by adding a preset item to a criteria to search a content, when a number of criteria to categorize the content under an item corresponding to the extracted utterance component is less than a preset number.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Application No. 17/199,113,filed on Mar. 11, 2021, which is a continuation of U.S. PatentApplication No. 15/174,142, filed on Jun. 6, 2016, now U.S. Patent No.10,986,391, issued Apr. 20, 2021, which is a continuation of U.S. PatentApplication No. 14/149,083, filed on Jan. 7, 2014, now U.S. Patent No.9,380,330, issued Jun. 28, 2016, and claims priority from Korean PatentApplication No. 10-2013-0001839, filed on Jan. 7, 2013, in the KoreanIntellectual Property Office, the disclosures of which are incorporatedherein by reference in its entireties.

BACKGROUND 1. Field

Methods and apparatuses consistent with exemplary embodiments a serverwhich constructs an interactive system and a method for controlling theserver.

2. Description of the Related Art

With the development of electronic technologies, various types ofdisplay apparatuses have been developed and disseminated, and equippedwith various functions according to users’ demands. Specifically, moderntelevisions (TVs) provide Internet services by connecting the TV to theInternet, and a user can watch multiple digital broadcasting channelsthorough the TV.

Technology to control display apparatuses according to the voices ofusers has recently been developed in order to control displayapparatuses more conveniently and intuitively. Specifically, the TV mayperform functions based on commands such as volume control or channelchange issued by the voices of users, by recognizing the user voices.

However, in the related art, there are limitations where the contentscannot be searched for and provided according to user voices.

SUMMARY

Exemplary embodiments overcome the above disadvantages and otherdisadvantages not described above. Also, the exemplary embodiments arenot required to overcome the disadvantages described above, and anexemplary embodiment may not overcome any of the problems describedabove.

One or more exemplary embodiments provide a server which searchescontents when an interactive system is implemented on the server, and acontrolling method thereof.

According to an aspect of the exemplary embodiment, a server whichimplements an interactive system with a display apparatus is provided,the server including a communicator which is configured to receive textinformation corresponding to a user’s voice collected at the displayapparatus from the display apparatus, and a controller configured toextract an utterance component from the text information and control sothat a query to search contents is generated using the extractedutterance component, and transmitted to an external server which isconfigured to categorize metadata of the content under each item andstore the metadata. The controller may generate the query by adding apreset item to a criteria to search a content, when a number of criteriacategorizing the content under an item corresponding to the extractedutterance component is less than a preset number.

The server may additionally include a storage configures to storeinformation regarding the criteria to categorize the contents under eachitem. The controller may determine whether the number of criteria tocategorize the contents under an item corresponding to the extractedutterance component is less than the preset number based on theinformation regarding the criteria to categorize contents.

The controller may determine the preset item to be added to the criteriato search contents based on user preference information.

When the contents search cannot be performed in response to the querygenerated according to the addition of the preset item to the criteriato search the contents, the controller may regenerate a query to searchcontents based on the extracted utterance components.

When an item has less than the preset number of the criteria tocategorize contents, the item may be at least one of a broadcasting typeitem and a screen quality item.

The preset item may be at least one of broadcasting time item andbroadcasting channel item.

According to an aspect of another exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a method for controlling a server which implements aninteractive system with a display apparatus is provided. The method mayinclude receiving text information corresponding to a user voicecollected at the display apparatus, extracting an utterance componentfrom the text information and generating a query to search a content byusing the extracted utterance component, and transmitting the generatedquery to an external server which categorizes the content under eachitem and stores the same. The generating may include generating thequery by adding a preset item to the criteria to search a content, whena number of criteria to categorize contents under an item correspondingto the extracted utterance component is less than a preset number.

The generating may include determining whether the number of criteria tocategorize the contents under an item corresponding to the extractedutterance component is less than the preset number based on theinformation regarding the criteria to categorize contents.

The generating may include determining the preset item to be added tothe criteria to search contents based on user preference information.

When contents search cannot be performed in response to the querygenerated according to the addition of the preset item to the criteriato search contents, the generating may include regenerating a query tosearch contents by using the extracted utterance components.

When an item has less than the preset number of the criteria tocategorize contents, the item may be at least one of a broadcasting typeitem and a screen quality item.

The preset item may be at least one of broadcasting time item andbroadcasting channel item.

According to various exemplary embodiments, a problem of too many searchoutcomes and subsequently deteriorated efficiency in searching contentsare resolved when the contents are searched only based on the utterancecomponents extracted from the user voices. Further, a user of theinteractive system can be provided with contents search results thatsuit his intention when making the utterance, while he can also reducethe frequency of having to interact with the display apparatus.Accordingly, user convenience is improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and/or other aspects will be more apparent by describingcertain exemplary embodiments with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an interactive system according to an exemplaryembodiment;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a display apparatus according to anexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a first server according to an exemplaryembodiment;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a second server according to an exemplaryembodiment;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of structured metadataaccording to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a detailed block diagram of the second server in FIG. 4 ;

FIG. 7 is a diagram provided to explain an example of a method foradding criteria to search contents according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIGS. 8A-8B, and 9A-9D illustrate examples of UI screens provided from adisplay apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment; and

FIG. 10 is a flowchart provided to explain a controlling method of aserver according to an exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Certain exemplary embodiments will now be described in greater detailwith reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the following description, same drawing reference numerals are usedfor the same elements even in different drawings. The matters defined inthe description, such as detailed construction and elements, areprovided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of the exemplaryembodiment. Accordingly, it is apparent that the exemplary embodimentscan be carried out without those specifically defined matters. Also,well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail sincethey would obscure the exemplary embodiment with unnecessary detail.

FIG. 1 is a diagram which illustrates an interactive system according toan exemplary embodiment. Referring to FIG. 1 , an interactive system1000 includes a display apparatus 100, a first server 200, a secondserver 300, and an external server 400. As used herein, the ‘secondserver 300’ may be referred to as an ‘interactive interface device’.

The display apparatus 100 may be controlled by a remote controller (notillustrated). Specifically, the display apparatus 100 may performoperations corresponding to remote control signals received from theremote controller (not illustrated). For example, when the displayapparatus 100 is implemented as a TV such as the one illustrated in FIG.1 , the display apparatus 100 may perform functions such as poweron/off, channel change, and volume control according to remote controlsignals received from the remote controller (not illustrated).

Further, the display apparatus 100 may perform various operationscorresponding to user voices.

Specifically, the display apparatus 100 may perform functionscorresponding to user voices, or may output system replies correspondingto user voices.

The display apparatus 100 may transmit collected user voices to thefirst server 200. When the user voices are received from the displayapparatus 100, the first server 200 converts the received user voices totext information (i.e., texts) and transmits the text information to thedisplay apparatus 100.

The display apparatus 100 transmits the text information received fromthe first server 200 to the second server 300. When the text informationis received from the display apparatus 100, the second server 300generates reply data corresponding to the received text information andtransmits the reply data to the display apparatus 100.

The display apparatus 100 may perform various operations based on thereply data received from the second server 300. Herein, the reply datamay include diverse information related to commands to control thedisplay apparatus 100 to perform specific functions, and system repliesoutputted from the display apparatus 100.

Specifically, the display apparatus 100 may perform functionscorresponding to user voices. In other words, the display apparatus 100may perform functions corresponding to user voices among functions thatcan be provided from the display apparatus 100. For example, when uservoices indicating a command to change channels are inputted from thedisplay apparatus 100, the second server 300 may transmit a controllingcommand to change channels to the display apparatus 100. Therefore, thedisplay apparatus 100 may change channels based on the receivedcontrolling command.

Further, the display apparatus 100 may output system repliescorresponding to user voices. The system replies may be outputted in atleast one format of a voice format and a UI screen format.

For example, when user voices requesting broadcasting program searchesare inputted from the display apparatus 100, the second server 300 maysearch for contents matching the intention of the user utterance andtransmit the search results to the display apparatus 100. Therefore, thedisplay apparatus 100 may display a UI screen which includes a list ofcontents searched for in accordance with the intention of the userutterance.

Thus, the display apparatus 100 may perform various functionscorresponding to user voices based on the received reply data from thesecond server 300.

When the intention of the user utterance is related to searchingcontents, the second server 300 may search contents matching theintention of the user utterance through the external server 400, andtransmit the search results to the display apparatus 100.

Herein, the external server 400 may structure metadata and store thestructured metadata. For example, the external server 400 may beimplemented as a metadata server which structures metadata informationregarding an Electronic Program Guide (EPG), music, video on demand(VOD), photographs, and applications, and stores structured metadata.

Specifically, the external server 400 may divide metadata of contentsper item (or field), structure the metadata of the contents based oncriteria to categorize the contents under each item, and store thestructured metadata. As used herein, the ‘item’ may be the attributewhich categorizes the metadata of contents, and the ‘criteria tocategorize the contents’ may be detailed attributes which dividecontents within each field. For example, when the item is ‘broadcastingtype’, the criteria to categorize the contents may be attributes whichfurther divide broadcasting type into first airing broadcasting andre-airing broadcasting. For another example, when the item is a ‘screenquality’, the criteria to categorize the contents may be attributeswhich further divide the screen quality into high definition (HD) andstandard definition (SD).

Specifically, the second server 300 may extract utterance componentsfrom text information and generate queries to search contents by usingthe extracted utterance components. Herein, the second server 300 maygenerate a query by adding preset items as criteria to search thecontents and transmit the query to the external server 400, when thecriteria to categorize the contents under an item corresponding to theextracted utterance components are less than a preset number ofcriteria.

For example, it is assumed that a user utters, “Find re-airingprograms.” In this case, the second server 300 extracts “re-airing” asan utterance component related to a broadcasting type from the receivedtext information, and determines the criteria to categorize the contentsregarding broadcasting type from the stored structured metadata. Becausebroadcasting type is divided into two criteria such as re-airing andfirst-airing to categorize the contents, the second server 300 maygenerate a query to search the contents by adding a broadcasting channelwhich a user is currently viewing as the criteria to search contents.

As a result, according to the query received from the second server 300,the external server 400 may search broadcasting programs provided from abroadcasting channel which a user is currently viewing, and transmitinformation regarding the searched broadcasting programs (e.g., at leastone of title, cast, producer, genre, broadcasting type, broadcastingtime, screen quality, viewing rate, broadcasting channel, and thumbnail)to the second server 300. When search results corresponding to uservoices are received from the external server 400, the second server 300may transmit reply data so that the display apparatus 100 can outputsystem replies corresponding to user voices to the display apparatus100. Accordingly, the display apparatus 100 may output a list ofbroadcasting programs provided from a broadcasting channel which a useris currently viewing as re-airing programs in response to system repliesto a user voice utterance such as, “Find re-airing programs.”

Thus, the server according to an exemplary embodiment may generate aquery by adding preset items as the criteria to search contents, whenthe criteria to categorize contents under an item corresponding toutterance components extracted from text information are less than thepreset number. The above process may solve the following problem. Whencontents are searched only by utterance components extracted from uservoices, efficiency of contents searching may be deteriorated because toomany contents are being searched.

Although FIG. 1 illustrates the display apparatus 100 as implemented asa TV, this is merely exemplary. The display apparatus 100 may beimplemented as various electronic devices such as a mobile phone such asa smart phone, a desktop personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, or aGlobal Positioning System (GPS).

Further, although FIG. 1 illustrates the first server 200 and the secondserver 300 implemented as separate servers, this is merely exemplary.The first server 200 and the second server 300 may also be implementedas a single interactive server including both the first server 200 andthe second server 300. In this case, the display apparatus 100 maytransmit user voices to the interactive server, and the interactiveserver may convert user voices received from the display apparatus 100to text information, and search contents matching intention of theutterance by using the converted text information. When the criteria tocategorize the contents under an item corresponding to the extractedintention of the utterance from text information are less than thepreset number, the interactive server may generate a query by addingpreset items as the criteria to search the contents. Therefore, when thefirst server 200 and the second server 300 are implemented as oneinteractive server including both servers, the display apparatus 100 maytransmit user voices to the interactive server.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a display apparatus according to anexemplary embodiment. Referring to FIG. 2 , the display apparatus 100may include an output 110, a voice collector 120, a first communicator130, a second communicator 135, a storage 140, a receiver 150, a signalprocessor 160, a remote control signal receiver 171, an input 173, aninterface 175 and a controller 180. Accordingly, the above-notedelements of the display apparatus may take the form of an entirelyhardware embodiment such as a processor or circuit(s), an entirelysoftware embodiment (including firmware, resident software, microcode,etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware.

Although FIG. 2 illustrates various elements that can be included in thedisplay apparatus 100, the display apparatus 100 may not necessarilyinclude all of the elements, and may not be limited to have only theabove-mentioned elements. According to the product type of the displayapparatus 100, some elements may be deleted or added, or substitutedwith other elements.

The output 110 outputs at least one of voices and images. Specifically,the output 110 may output system replies corresponding to user voicescollected in the voice collector 120 in at least one format of a voiceformat and a UI screen format.

UI screen may express system replies corresponding to user voices intext format or search results searched by user voices in list format.

The output 110 may include a display 111 and an audio output 113.

Specifically, the display 111 may be implemented as a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD), an organic light emitting display (OLED), or a plasmadisplay panel (PDP), but is not limited thereto.

The display 111 may provide various display screens that can be providedthough the display apparatus 100. Specifically, the display 111 maycreate and display UI screens with system replies corresponding to uservoices.

The audio output 113 may be implemented as an output port such as a jackor a speaker, and may output system replies corresponding to user voicesin voice format.

Further, the output 110 may output various contents. Herein, contentsmay include broadcasting contents and VOD contents. For example, thedisplay 111 may output images constituting contents and the audio output113 may output audios constituting contents.

The voice collector 120 collects user voices. For example, the voicecollector 120 may be implemented as a microphone to collect user voices,and may be mounted within the display apparatus 100 to constitute anintegrated type microphone, or may be implemented to be separated fromthe display apparatus 100. When the voice collector 120 is implementedas a separate type, the voice collector 120 may be implemented as a griptype that a user can hold, or a set type that can be placed on adining-room table or a living-room table. The microphone may beconnected with the display apparatus 100 through a wired or a wirelessnetwork, and may transmit collected user voices to the display apparatus100.

The voice collector 120 may determine whether the collected voices areuser voices, and perform filtering on the collected voices to removebackground noises such as air conditioner sounds, vacuum cleaner soundsor music sounds from the collected user voices.

For example, the voice collector 120 performs sampling on the uservoices, and converts the received signals into digital signals when uservoices in analog format are inputted. The voice collector 120 calculatesthe energy of the converted digital signals and determines whether theenergy of the digital signals is more than a preset value.

If the energy of the digital signals is more than a preset value, thevoice collector 120 removes noise elements from the digital signals andtransmits the filtered signal to the first communicator 130. At thisprocess, noise elements are sporadic irrelevant sounds that can occurwithin the home environment, and may include noises such as airconditioner sounds, vacuum cleaner sounds and music sounds. When theenergy of the digital signals is less than a preset value, the voicecollector 120 waits for another user voice input without processing thedigital signals.

Accordingly, unnecessary electric consumption can be prevented becausewhole audio processing is not activated when background noises are notincluded with the user voices.

The first communicator 130 performs communication with the first server200 of FIG. 1 . Specifically, the first communicator 130 transmits uservoices to the first server 200 and receives text informationcorresponding to user voices from the first server 200.

The second communicator 135 performs communication with the secondserver 300 of FIG. 1 . Specifically, the second communicator 135 maytransmit received text information to the second server 300, and receivereply data corresponding to the text information from the second server300.

The first communicator 130 and the second communicator 135 may performcommunication with the first server 200 and the second server 300 byusing various communication methods.

For example, the first communicator 130 and the second communicator 135may perform communication with the first server 200 and the secondserver 300 by using wire/wireless local area network (LAN), wide areanetwork (WAN), Ethernet, Bluetooth, Zigbee, universal serial bus (USB),IEEE 1394, and Wifi. Thus, the first communicator 130 and the secondcommunicator 135 may include chips or input ports corresponding to eachcommunication method. For example, when performing communication with awired LAN method, the first communicator 130 and the second communicator135 may include wired LAN cards (not illustrated) and input ports (notillustrated).

The above exemplary embodiment discloses that the display apparatus 100may mount separate communicators 130, 135 in order to communicate withthe first server 200 and the second server 300. However, this is merelyexemplary. The display apparatus 100 may also communicate with the firstserver 200 and the second server 300 through a single communicationmodule.

Further, the above exemplary embodiment discloses that the firstcommunicator 130 and the second communicator 135 communicate with thefirst server 200 and the second server 300. However, this is merelyexemplary. The first communicator 130 and the second communicator 135may perform web browsing by connecting with a web server (notillustrated).

The storage 140 is a storage medium in which various programs necessaryfor operating the display apparatus 100 are stored, and may beimplemented as a non-transitory computer recording medium such as acompact disk (CD), a digital versatile disk (DVD, and hard disk drive(HDD). For example, the storage 140 may include a read only memory (ROM)which stores programs to operate the controller 180 and a random accessmemory (RAM) which temporarily stores data according to operation of thecontroller 180. Further, the storage 140 may include electricallyerasable and programmable ROM (EEPROM) which stores various relevantdata.

The receiver 150 receives various contents. Herein, contents may includebroadcasting contents and VOD contents, but is not limited thereto.

Specifically, the receiver 150 may receive contents from broadcastingstations which transmit broadcasting programs by using a broadcastingnetwork or web servers which transmit content files by using theInternet.

If contents are received from broadcasting stations, the receiver 150may be implemented as a system which includes a tuner (not illustrated),a demodulator (not illustrated), and a lighter (not illustrated). Whencontents are received from sources such as web servers, the receiver 150may be implemented as a network interface card (not illustrated).

Thus, the receiver 150 may be implemented as various types of receiversaccording to the exemplary embodiments.

The signal processor 160 may perform signal processing on the contentsso that contents received through the receiver 150 or the interface 175can be outputted by the output 110.

Specifically, the signal processor 160 may perform operations such asdecoding, scaling and frame rate converting on the images included inthe contents, and may convert the contents to a format that can beoutputted in the display 111. Further, the signal processor 160 mayperform signal processing such as decoding on the audio signals includedin the contents and convert the audio signals to a format that can beoutputted in the audio output 113.

The remote control signal receiver 171 receives remote control signalsfrom external remote controllers. The controller 180 may perform variousoperations based on the remote control signals received in the remotecontrol signal receiver 171. For example, the controller 180 may performfunctions such as power on/off, channel change and volume controlaccording to controlling signals received through the remote controlsignal receiver 171.

The input 173 receives various user commands. The controller 180 mayperform operations corresponding to user commands inputted in the input173. For example, the controller 180 may perform power on/off, channelchange and volume control according to user commands inputted from theinput 173.

The input 173 may be implemented as an input panel. The input panel maybe configured as a touch pad, a key pad which arranges various functionkeys, number keys, special keys and character keys, or a touch screen.

The interface 175 communicates with external devices (not illustrated).External devices (not illustrated) may be implemented as various typesof electronic devices, and transmit contents to the display apparatus100. For example, when the display apparatus 100 is implemented as a TV,external devices (not illustrated) may be implemented as various typesof electronic devices that can connect to the display apparatus 100 andperform functions such as cellular phone, set-top box, DVD player,Blu-ray disk player and gaming machines.

For example, the interface 175 may communicate with external devices(not illustrated) according to various wired communication methods suchas HDMI and USB or wireless communication methods such as Bluetooth andZigbee. The interface 175 may include chips or input ports correspondingto each communication method. For example, when communicating withexternal devices (not illustrated) according to the HDMI communicationmethod, the interface 175 may include HDMI ports.

The controller 180 controls general operations of the display apparatus100. The controller 180 may control operations of the output 110, thevoice collector 120, the first communicator 130, the second communicator135, the storage 140, the signal processor 160, the remote controlsignal receiver 171, the input 173, and the interface 175. Thecontroller 180 may further include ROM and RAM which store programs anddata to control the central processing unit (CPU) and the displayapparatus 100.

Specifically, the controller 180 may control the first communicator 130to collect user voices input through the voice collector 120, totransmit the collected user voices to the first server 200, and receivetext information from the first server 200. The controller 180 maycontrol the second communicator 135 to transmit the received textinformation to the second server 300 when text information correspondingto user voices is received.

When reply data corresponding to user voices is received from the secondserver 300, the controller 180 may perform various operations based onthe received reply data.

Specifically, the controller 180 may perform functions corresponding touser voices based on the received reply data.

Reply data may include controlling commands to control the displayapparatus 100. Herein, controlling commands may include commands toperform functions corresponding to user voices among functions that canbe operated in the display apparatus 100. Therefore, the controller 180may control each element of the display apparatus 100 so that functionscorresponding to user voices can be operated based on the receivedcontrolling commands from the second server 300.

For example, when the display apparatus 100 is implemented as a TV, andthe display apparatus collects a user voice saying, “to channel # (#:channel number),” the second server 300 may determine that the intentionof the utterance included in the user voice “to channel # (#: channelnumber)”, to be a request to change channels to channel # (#: channelnumber), and transmit controlling commands to change channels to channel# (#: channel number) to the display apparatus 100. Therefore, thecontroller 180 may control so that channel # (#: channel number) istuned based on the received controlling commands and the contentsprovided through the selected channel is outputted.

However, this is merely exemplary the controller 180 may control eachelement of the display apparatus 100 so that diverse operations such aspower on/off or volume control can be performed according to collecteduser voices.

Further, reply data may include diverse information related with systemreplies which are outputted in the display apparatus 100. In this case,reply data may further include controlling commands to output systemreplies corresponding user voices.

Specifically, when the utterance of the user voices have the intent tosearch contents are collected in the display apparatus 100, the secondserver 300 may determine the intent of the user utterance, and searchcontents matching the determined intention of the utterance. The secondserver 300 may transmit at least one of information regarding searchedcontents such as title, cast, producer, genre, broadcasting type,broadcasting time, screen quality, viewing rate, broadcasting channeland thumbnail.

In this case, the controller 180 may output system replies correspondingto user voices in at least one of a voice format and a UI screen formatby using received information. According to the above exemplaryembodiment, the controller 180 may generate a list of contents by usinginformation regarding contents received from the second server 300 andoutput a UI screen including the generated list. The controller 180 mayadd at least one of information regarding the searched contents such astitle, cast, producer, genre, broadcasting type, broadcasting time,screen quality, viewing rate, broadcasting channel and thumbnail to thelist.

The reply data may include system reply data which expresses systemreplies outputted on the display apparatus 100 in text format.Therefore, the controller 180 may control the output 110 to outputsystem replies corresponding to user voices in at least one format of avoice format and a UI screen format by using received reply data.

For example, the controller 180 may convert system reply data expressedin text format to voices by using a text to speech (TTS) engine, andoutput the voice utterance through the audio output 113. The TTS engineis a module which converts texts to voices. The TTS engine may converttexts to voices by using various TTS algorithms disclosed in the relatedart. Further, the controller 180 may create a UI screen which includestexts constituting system reply data, and output the texts through thedisplay 111.

The controller 180 may analyze user preference information and store theuser preference information in the storage 140. Specifically, when acommand to power on or change channels is inputted, the controller 180may determine contents provided from the selected channel based on EPGinformation, and store at least one of information regarding thedetermined contents such as title, cast, producer, genre, broadcastingtype, broadcasting time, screen quality, viewing rate and broadcastingchannel. Further, when a command to power on or change input ports isinputted, the controller 180 may determine that contents provided fromexternal devices (not illustrated) connected to the interface 175, andstore at least one of information regarding the determined contents suchas title, cast, producer, genre, broadcasting type, broadcasting time,screen quality, viewing rate and broadcasting channel. The controller180 may request transmission information regarding contents stored inthe external devices (not illustrated).

The controller 180 may determine the title, cast, producer, genre,broadcasting type, broadcasting time, screen quality, viewing rate, andbroadcasting channel with regard to contents which are viewed more thana preset number of times to be the title, cast, producer, genre,broadcasting type, broadcasting time, screen quality, viewing rate andbroadcasting channel which a user prefers, and store that information inthe storage 140. When a command to request user preference informationis received from the second server 300, the controller 180 may transmituser preference information to the second server 300.

However, the above is merely exemplary. The controller 180 may display aUI screen which receives user preference information according to presetevents, and store the user preference information inputted through theUI screen in the storage 140.

The controller 180 may transmit information regarding a channel which auser is currently viewing to the second server 300. For example, when arequesting command is received from the second server 300, thecontroller 180 may determine the currently selected channel through thereceiver 150 and transmit information regarding the determined channelto the second server 300.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the first server according to an exemplaryembodiment. Referring to FIG. 3 , the first server 200 includes acommunicator 210 and a controller 220.

The communicator 210 performs communication with the display apparatus100. Specifically, the communicator 210 may receive user voices from thedisplay apparatus 100 and transmit text information corresponding to thereceived user voices to the display apparatus 100. The communicator 210may include diverse communication modules.

The controller 220 controls general operations of the first server 200.Specifically, when user voices are received from the display apparatus100, the controller 220 controls the communicator 210 to generate textinformation corresponding to the received user voices, and transmit thetext information to the display apparatus 100.

Specifically, the controller 220 may generate text informationcorresponding to the received user voices by using a speech to text(STT) engine. Herein, the STT engine is a module which converts voicesignals to texts. The SST engine may convert voice signals to texts byusing various STT algorithms disclosed in the related art.

For example, the controller 220 determines voice intervals by examiningthe start and end of voices which a user utters within the received uservoices. Specifically, the controller 220 may calculate the energy of thereceived voice signals, classify the energy level of the voice signalsaccording to the calculated energy, and examine the voice intervalthrough dynamic programming. Further, the controller 220 may generatephoneme data by examining the phoneme as minimum unit of voices based onan acoustic model within the examined voice interval, and convert uservoices to texts by applying a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) probabilisticmodel to the generated phoneme data.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the second server according to an exemplaryembodiment. Referring to FIG. 4 , the second server 300 includes acommunicator 310 and a controller 320.

The communicator 310 performs communication with the display apparatus100. Specifically, the communicator 310 may receive text informationcorresponding to user voices collected in the display apparatus 100 fromthe display apparatus 100. The communicator 310 may transmit reply datacorresponding to the received text information to the display apparatus100.

Further, the communicator 310 performs communication with the externalserver 400 of FIG. 1 . Specifically, the communicator 310 may transmit aquery to search contents to the external server 400, and receive thesearch results according to the query from the external server 400.

The communicator 310 may include various communication modules. Forexample, the communicator 310 may perform communication with the displayapparatus 100 and the external server 400 through communication methodssuch as wire/wireless LAN, Ethernet, Bluetooth, Zigbee, USB, IEEE 1394,and Wifi, but not limited thereto. The communicator 310 may mount chipsor input ports corresponding to each communication method. For example,when performing communication with wired LAN method, the communicator310 may arrange wired LAN cards (not illustrated) and input ports (notillustrated).

However, this is merely exemplary. The communicator 310 may also installother separate communication modules to perform communication with eachof the display apparatus 100 and the external server 400.

The controller 320 controls general operations of the second server 300.Specifically, the controller 320 may extract utterance components fromtext information, generate query to search contents by using theextracted utterance components, and transmit the query to the externalserver 400. The external server 400 may divide and store metadataregarding contents per item.

Specifically, when text information is received from the displayapparatus 100, the controller 320 may extract utterance components fromthe text information and determine the intention of the user’s utteranceby using the extracted utterance components.

For example, it is assumed that text information such as “Find re-airingprograms” is received from the display apparatus 100. In this case, thecontroller 320 may extract the term, “re-airing programs,” as theutterance component related with a broadcasting type from the textinformation written as “Find re-airing programs” by using prestoredkeywords. The controller 320 may determine that the term, “Find,”corresponds to a search request using prestored keywords, and determinethat the intention of the utterance “Find re-airing programs”corresponds to a search request for re-airing programs.

If the intention of the user utterance relates to searching contents,the controller 320 may generate a query to search contents by using theextracted intention of the utterance. The controller 320 determinesitems which are mapped with the extracted utterance components andcriteria which divide contents per item in structured metadata stored inthe external server 400.

Based on criteria to categorize the contents under an item mapped withthe extracted intention of the utterance, the controller 320 determinesthe attributes effectiveness of searching the features in the extractedutterance components. Specifically, according to whether the number ofcriteria to categorize the contents under an item mapped with theextracted utterance components is a preset number or not, i.e., when thenumber of criteria to categorize contents is less than the presetnumber, the controller 320 may determine the extracted utterancecomponents to be an un-matched searching condition. The preset numbermay be two. However, the preset number may not be limited to two.

If the extracted utterance components are determined to be an un-matchedsearching condition, the controller 320 may generate a query by addingat least one of semantically orthogonal attributes from the extractedutterance components as criteria to search contents. Herein,semantically orthogonal attributes are attributes which do not affectthe intention of the user utterance for searching contents and may bealready established.

Specifically, the controller 320 may generate a query by adding presetitems as criteria to search contents, when the number of criteria tocategorize contents under an item corresponding to the extractedutterance components is less than the preset number.

Herein, items whose criteria to categorize contents are less than thepreset number may be at least one of broadcasting type item and screenquality item. Further, preset items may be at least one of broadcastingtime item and broadcasting channel item.

In the following, it is assumed that the external server 400 structuresand stores metadata as illustrated in FIG. 5 for further specificexplanation.

First, the external server 400 may divide metadata of contents per item.Items are various contents information included in metadata, and theexternal server 400 may divide and store metadata into items such astitle, cast, producer, genre, broadcasting type, broadcasting time,screen quality, viewing rate, and broadcasting channel, as shown in FIG.5 .

The external server 400 may structure and store metadata of contentsaccording to criteria to categorize the contents under each item.

For example, referring to FIG. 5 , the external server 400 may dividemetadata of contents into title item 510 which categorizes the metadataregarding contents by applying “title” as criteria to categorizecontents, cast item 520 which categorizes the metadata regarding thecontents by applying “cast” as criteria to categorize contents, produceritem 530 which categorizes the metadata regarding contents by applying“producer” as criteria to categorize contents, genre item 540 whichcategorizes the metadata regarding the contents by applying “genre” ascriteria to categorize the contents, broadcasting type item 550 whichcategorizes the metadata regarding the contents by applying“broadcasting type” as criteria to categorize contents, broadcastingtime item 560 which categorizes the metadata regarding contents byapplying “broadcasting time” as criteria to categorize the contents,screen quality item 570 which categorizes the metadata regardingcontents by applying “screen quality” as criteria to categorizecontents, viewing rate item 580 which categorizes the metadata regardingcontents by applying “viewing rate” as criteria to categorize thecontents, and broadcasting channel item 590 which categorizes themetadata regarding contents by applying “broadcasting channel” ascriteria to categorize contents. After dividing, the external server 400may structure and store the metadata of contents.

However, this is merely exemplary. The external server 400 may alsostructure and store metadata by using various other contents informationconstituting the metadata.

When the external server 400 structures and stores the metadataillustrated in FIG. 5 , a method for generating query to search thecontents in the controller 320 will be explained below.

For example, when text information written as “Find re-airing programs”is received from the display apparatus 100, the controller 320 mayextract the utterance components, “re-airing programs,” from “Findre-airing programs.”

In this case, “re-airing programs” is an utterance component which isrelated to the item “broadcasting type”, and an item mapped with theutterance components in the structured metadata corresponds to thebroadcasting type item 550. Therefore, the controller 320 checks thenumber of criteria to categorize contents under the broadcasting typeitem 550 in the structured metadata.

Because the broadcasting type item 550 is divided into two criteria tocategorize contents, i.e., first airing and re-airing, the controller320 may determine that the number of criteria to categorize contentsunder an item mapped with the extracted utterance component is less thana preset number, and that the extracted utterance components areun-matched searching conditions.

The reason why the extracted utterance components are determined to beun-matched searching conditions when the number of criteria tocategorize the contents under an item mapped with the extractedutterance components is less than the preset number is that efficiencyof searching contents becomes lower when too many contents are to besearched when contents are searched only with the extracted utterancecomponents.

Therefore, the controller 320 may generate a query for searchingcontents by adding preset items as criteria to search contents.Specifically, the controller 320 may establish searching conditionsunder the preset items and generate a query for searching contents byusing the established searching conditions and the extracted utterancecomponents.

Herein, preset items may be at least one of the broadcasting time itemand the broadcasting channel item.

Conditions established per preset item may be previously established ineach item. For example, regarding the broadcasting time item, conditionsmay be preset as contents which are aired within a preset time, e.g., 24hours, from the current time. Regarding the broadcasting channel item,conditions may be preset as contents which are aired on a channel that auser is currently viewing.

Therefore, when the broadcasting time item is added as criteria tosearch contents, the controller 320 may establish contents which areaired within the preset time from the current time as conditionsregarding the broadcasting time item. The controller 320 may generate aquery for searching contents of which broadcasting time is 24 hours fromthe current time and broadcasting type is re-airing, and transmit thegenerated query to the external server 400.

The external server 400 may perform the searching of contents based onthe query received from the second server 300, and transmit the searchresults to the second server 300. The external server 400 may transmitinformation regarding the searched contents such as at least one oftitle, thumbnail, cast, producer, genre, broadcasting type, broadcastingtime, screen quality, viewing rate, and broadcasting channel as searchresults. For example, when it is 10 o′clock, 7th of January, theexternal server 400 may transmit title information regarding thesearched contents, i.e., Title_BBB, Title_CCC by using the structuredmetadata in FIG. 5 .

When the broadcasting channel item is added as a criteria to search thecontents, the controller 320 may establish information regarding achannel that a user is currently viewing as conditions regarding thebroadcasting channel item. The controller 320 may request informationregarding the currently selected channel in the display apparatus 100and receive information regarding the channel that a user is currentlyviewing. Therefore, when the display apparatus 100 currently selects CH22, the controller 320 may generate a query to search contents of whichthe broadcasting channel is CH 22 and broadcasting type is re-airing,and transmit the generated query to the external server 400.

The external server 400 may perform searching of the contents by usingthe query received from the second server 300 and transmit the searchresults to the second server 300. The external server 400 may transmitinformation regarding the searched contents such as at least one oftitle, thumbnail, cast, producer, genre, broadcasting type, broadcastingtime, screen quality, viewing rate and broadcasting channel as searchresults. For example, the external server 400 may transmit titleinformation of the searched contents, i.e., Title_III by using thestructured metadata in FIG. 5 .

As described above, the reason why the broadcasting channel item or thebroadcasting time item is added as additional conditions to search thecontents is that the intention of the user utterance to search thecontents may not be affected. Thus, since the intention of the userutterance in the above exemplary embodiments is to simply request asearch for re-airing programs, the intention of the user utterance maybe affected when items such as title, cast, producer and genre areestablished as additional conditions. Therefore, the broadcastingchannel item or the broadcasting time item which has a lower possibilityof affecting the intention of the user utterance may be added.

The controller 320 may generate reply data by using the search resultsreceived from the external server 400, and transmit the generated replydata to the display apparatus 100.

Reply data may include diverse information related to system repliesoutputted in the display apparatus 100. In this case, reply data mayfurther include controlling commands to output system repliescorresponding to user voices.

According to the above exemplary embodiment, when the display apparatus100 collects “Find re-airing programs,” the controller 320 may transmitinformation of the received contents such as at least one of title,thumbnail, cast, producer, genre, broadcasting type, broadcasting time,screen quality, viewing rate and broadcasting channel to the displayapparatus 100. In this case, the controller 320 may transmit acontrolling command to output a contents list to the display apparatus100 by using the contents information.

Therefore, the display apparatus 100 may output system repliescorresponding to user voices based on the reply data received from thesecond server 300. In other words, the display apparatus 100 may outputa UI screen constituting a list of the searched contents in response toa user voice request for searching contents. The display apparatus 100may add information of the searched contents such as at least one oftitle, thumbnail, cast, producer, genre, broadcasting type, broadcastingtime, screen quality, viewing rate and broadcasting channel to the list.

According to the above exemplary embodiment, the display apparatus 100may output a list constituting contents BBB and contents CCC or a listconstituting searched contents in response to user voices saying, “Findre-airing programs.”

Therefore, according to an exemplary embodiment, when the extractedintention of the utterance is an un-matched searching conditions,contents may be searched by automatically adding criteria to search thecontents.

Although the above exemplary embodiment discloses that an item mappedwith the extracted utterance components is the broadcasting type item,this is merely exemplary. The screen quality item 570 is divided into HDand SD, i.e., two criteria to categorize the contents, when utterancecomponents related to screen quality are extracted, the extractedutterance components may be determined to be un-matched searchingconditions.

Further, although the above exemplary embodiment discloses that onepreset item is added as a criteria to search the contents, this ismerely exemplary. The controller 320 may add a plurality of preset itemsas criteria to search contents. Specifically, the controller 320 mayestablish conditions in each of the broadcasting time item and thebroadcasting channel item, and generate a query to search contents byusing the plurality of established conditions and the extractedutterance components.

Further, although the above exemplary embodiment discloses that presetitems are added as a criteria to search the contents, this is merelyexemplary. The controller 320 may determine preset items to be added asa criteria to search the contents based on user preference information.Herein, user preference information may include at least one of title,cast, producer, genre, broadcasting type, broadcasting time, screenquality, viewing rate and broadcasting channel which a user prefers. Inthis case, user preference information may be received from the displayapparatus 100.

For example, it is assumed that genre preferred by a user is movie. Thecontroller 320 may determine the genre item to be added as a criteria tosearch contents and generate a query to search contents by using thedetermined criteria to search contents. According to the above exemplaryembodiment, the controller 320 may establish “movie” as conditionsregarding the genre item, generate a query to search the contents ofwhich the genre is movie and broadcasting type is re-airing, andtransmit the generated query to the external server 400. Accordingly,the external server 400 may transmit title information of the searchedcontents, Title_HHH by using the structured metadata of FIG. 5 .

Further, although the above exemplary embodiment discloses that, whenthe extracted utterance components are un-matched searching conditions,contents may be searched by automatically adding other criteria to thesearch contents, this is merely exemplary. The controller 320 may ask auser whether to add other criteria to the search contents and determinethat other criteria to search the contents are added based on userreplies.

Specifically, when the extracted utterance components are un-matchedsearching conditions, the controller 320 may generate and transmit replydata to the display apparatus 100 so that the display apparatus 100 canoutput a question asking the user whether to add criteria to search thecontents as system replies.

The controller 320 may express system replies outputted in the displayapparatus 100 in text format and transmit the replies to the displayapparatus 100. For example, the controller 320 may express “Your commandis simple and may have many results. Broadcasting time is additionallylimited. Add and search?″ in text format and transmit the text to thedisplay apparatus 100.

Therefore, the display apparatus 100 may output a question askingwhether to additionally add criteria to search contents based on thereceived reply data from the second server 300 as system replies. Forexample, the display apparatus 100 may output UI screen including thetext, “Your command is simple and may have many results. Broadcastingtime is additionally limited. Add and search?″

The controller 320 may perform the searching of the contents by addingcriteria to search the contents based on the received text information.For example, when text information of “Yes” is received from the displayapparatus, the controller 320 may determine that the term, “Yes,”corresponds to a positive response based on prestored keywords, and mayperform the searching of contents by adding the preset item as a newcriteria to search contents. When text information of “No” is received,the controller 320 may determine that the term, “No,” corresponds to anegative response based on prestored keywords, and perform the searchingof the contents by using the extracted utterance components only withoutadding new criteria to search the contents.

Further, although the above exemplary embodiment discloses that othercriteria to search the contents are automatically added when theextracted utterance components are un-matched searching conditions, thisis merely exemplary. When the contents that are searched according tothe extracted utterance components do not provide any results, thecontroller 320 may perform searching contents of the contents by usingother parts of the extracted utterance components.

For example, it is assumed that text information of “Find re-airingprograms at CH 7 which all ages can watch” is received from the displayapparatus 100. The controller 320 extracts the term, “CH 7,” asutterance components related with the broadcasting channel, extracts theterm, “all ages” as utterance components related with the viewing rate,and extracts the term, “re-airing programs,” as utterance componentsrelated with the broadcasting type from the text information of “Findre-airing programs at CH 7 which all ages can watch.” Therefore, thecontroller 320 may determine that the intention of the utterance of“Find re-airing programs at CH 7 which all ages can watch” is to requestthe search for re-airing programs on CH 7 that all ages can watch.

In this case, the controller 320 may generate a query to search contentsby using the extracted utterance components. According to the aboveexemplary embodiment, the controller 320 may generate a query to searchthe contents of which the broadcasting channel is CH 7, the viewing rateis all ages, and the broadcasting type is re-airing, and transmit thegenerated query to the external server 400.

However, when the external server 400 arranges the structured metadataof FIG. 5 , because there are no contents satisfying the query receivedfrom the second server 300, the external server 400 may transmit a replyto the second server 300 indicating that there are no search results.

The controller 320 may regenerate a query to search the contents byusing other parts of the extracted utterance components. Specifically,the controller 320 may remove the extracted utterance componentscorresponding to at least one of the broadcasting time type and thebroadcasting channel type, and regenerate a query to search the contentsby using the other parts of the utterance components. According to theabove exemplary embodiment, the controller 320 may remove the utterancecomponents corresponding to at least one of the broadcasting channel,the viewing rate, and the broadcasting type, and regenerate a query tosearch the contents by using the other parts of the utterancecomponents. In other words, the controller 320 may generate a query tosearch the contents of which viewing rate is all ages and broadcastingtype is re-airing after removing the utterance components regarding thebroadcasting channel, or generate a query to search the contents ofwhich the broadcasting channel is CH 7 and the broadcasting type isre-airing after removing the utterance components regarding the viewingrate, or generate a query to search the contents of which thebroadcasting channel is CH 7 and the viewing rate is all ages afterremoving the utterance components regarding the broadcasting type.

When searching of the contents is not performed with the query generatedby adding preset items as criteria to search contents, the controller320 may regenerate the query to search the contents by using theextracted utterance components. When there are no contents which satisfythe extracted utterance components, and all of the searching conditionshave been added as criteria to search contents, the controller 320 mayregenerate the query to search the contents by using only the extractedutterance components.

According to the above exemplary embodiment, it is assumed that achannel which a user is currently viewing is CH 2. In this case, thecontroller 320 may generate a query to search the contents of which thebroadcasting channel is CH 2 and the broadcasting type is re-airing, andtransmit the generated query to the external server 400.

However, when the external server 400 arranges the structured metadataof FIG. 5 , the external server 400 may transmit replies saying thatthere are no search results to the second server 300 because there areno contents which satisfy the received query from the second server 300.In this case, the controller 320 may regenerate a query to search thecontents by using the extracted utterance components only. Thus,according to the above exemplary embodiment, the controller 320 maygenerate a query to search the contents of which broadcasting type isre-airing and transmit the generated query to the external server 400.

FIG. 6 is a detailed block diagram of the second server illustrated inFIG. 4 . Referring to FIG. 6 , the second server 300 may further includea storage 330 as well as the elements illustrated in FIG. 4 . The likeelements of FIG. 6 overlapping with those FIG. 4 with the same functionwill not be explained for the sake of brevity.

The storage 330 may store information regarding criteria to categorizecontents under an item. The storage 330 may store each item of thestructured metadata stored in the external server 400 and informationregarding criteria to categorize the contents which further divide eachitem. Therefore, the controller 320 may determine whether criteria tocategorize the contents under an item corresponding to extractedutterance components are less than a preset number based on informationregarding criteria to categorize the contents.

Further, the storage 330 may store diverse information to determine theintention of the user utterance by using received text information fromthe display apparatus 100.

Specifically, the storage 330 may store various information to analyzedomain, user action and slot from user voices by using received textinformation from the display apparatus 100.

Herein, the domain may be divided by topics which user uttering voicesbelong to such as “broadcasting” and “device control.” User actionindicates the intention of the user utterance such as “informationoutput” and “device control,” and slot indicates information whichspecifies object information regarding the domain, i.e., the intentionof the user utterance applied within the domain.

Specifically, the storage 330 may analyze user action within the domainand store keywords to extract the slot.

For example, the storage 330 may store information which keywords suchas “limit,” “search,” “find,” and “show” within the domain correspond toa user action which requests information searching. The storage 330 maystore various keywords related with contents such as title, cast,producer, genre, broadcasting type, broadcasting time, screen quality,viewing rate and broadcasting channel regarding contents, and storeinformation with regard to the slot that each keyword corresponds to.According to an exemplary embodiment, the storage 330 may storeinformation where the term, “re-airing program,” is a keyword related tothe a broadcasting type which corresponds to a slot.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the storage 330 may storeinformation where keywords such as “turn on,” “high,” “low,” “turn off,”and “execute” within the device control domain correspond to a useraction to request device control. The storage 330 may store variouskeywords related with device control such as channel name, channelnumber, volume, and power and store information where each keywordcorresponds to a slot.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the storage 330 may storeinformation where the terms, “Yes” and “Okay,” correspond to keywordswhich have a positive meaning, and the terms, “No” and “Don’t,”correspond to keywords which have a negative meaning.

Further, the storage 330 may arrange a corpus database. Herein, a corpusdatabase may be implemented in a format which stores exemplary phrasesand replies thereof.

Thus, the storage 330 may store a plurality of exemplary phrases andreplies to phrases per purpose domain. In this case, the storage 330 maytag and store information to analyze exemplary phrases and repliescorresponding to the exemplary phrases per exemplary phrase.

For example, the storage 330 may store an exemplary phrase, “Findre-airing programs,” in a broadcasting domain. In this case, the storage330 may tag and store information to analyze the exemplary phrase, “Findre-airing programs,” with a corresponding phrase. Specifically, thestorage 330 may tag and store a corresponding phrase with informationwhere “re-airing programs” indicates a slot related to a broadcastingtype and “Find” indicates a slot related to a request searching contentsfrom the exemplary phrase, “Find re-airing programs.”

According to another exemplary embodiment, the storage 330 may store anexemplary phrase, “Turn on CH O,” in a device control domain. In thiscase, the storage 330 may tag and store a corresponding phrase withinformation to analyze the exemplary phrase “Turn on CH O.”Specifically, the storage 330 may tag and store a corresponding phrasewith information where “CH O” indicates a slot related to a channelnumber and “Turn on” indicates a slot related to a request to poweron/off the television from the exemplary phrase, “Turn on CH O.”

Therefore, the controller 320 may extract utterance components from textinformation received from the display apparatus 100 by using informationstored in the storage 330, and determine the intention of the userutterance by using the extracted utterance components.

For example, it is assumed that the text information “Find re-airingprograms” is received from the display apparatus 100. The controller 320may extract “re-airing programs” as utterance components from the phrase“Find re-airing programs” by considering that the term, “re-airingprograms,” is a slot related to broadcasting type. The controller 320may determine that “Find” corresponds to a request to search informationin a user action, and that the intention of the utterance “Findre-airing programs” is to request the searching of re-airing programs.The controller 320 may determine that the search terms related to theuser voice are un-matched terms, generate a query to search contents byadding new searching conditions, and transmit the generated query to theexternal server 400. The controller 320 may further transmit reply datato the display apparatus 100 so that the display apparatus 100 canoutput system replies corresponding to “Find re-airing programs.”

For another example, it is assumed that text information of “Turn on CHO” is received from the display apparatus 100. The controller 320 mayextract “CH O” as utterance components from “Turn on CH O” byconsidering that the term, “CH O,” is slot related with channel number.The controller 320 may determine that “Turn on” corresponds to changingchannels in a user action and that the intention of the utterance “Turnon CH O” is to request the changing of channels to CH O. The controller320 may transmit a controlling command for the display apparatus 100 tochange channels into CH O to the display apparatus 100.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of a method for adding criteria to search contentsaccording to an exemplary embodiment.

Since the method for adding criteria to search contents is described byreferring to FIGS. 4 to 6 , it will be briefly explained by referring toFIG. 7 .

The second server 300 extracts utterance components from user voices atoperation S720 when text information corresponding to user voices isreceived at operation S710. The second server 300 determines attributeseffectiveness of the extracted utterance components at operation S730.Specifically, the second server 300 may determine attributeseffectiveness of the extracted utterance components based on whethercriteria to categorize the contents under an item corresponding to theextracted utterance components are less than the preset number.

Therefore, when the extracted utterance components are determined to bematching searching conditions at operation S730-Y, the second server 300may generate a query to search the contents by using the extractedutterance components, and transmit the generated query to informationsources, i.e., the external server 400.

When the extracted utterance components are determined to be un-matchedsearching conditions at operation S730-N, the server 300 may determineitems to be added as criteria to search contents at operation S740. Atthis step, the second server 300 may generate a question asking a userwhether to add criteria to search contents at operation S750, andprovide the generated question to a user through the display apparatus100. Based on the user’s reply to the question, the second server 300may add criteria to search contents to the extracted utterancecomponents, or generate a query to search contents only with theextracted utterance components, and transmit the generated query toinformation sources, i.e., the external server 400.

FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 9A-9D illustrate examples of UI screens provided fromthe display apparatus according to an embodiment.

For example, referring to FIG. 8A, it is assumed that a user utters thephrase “Find re-airing programs.”

In this case, the display apparatus 100 may display a UI screen 810including a list of contents based on reply data received from thesecond server 300 referring to FIG. 8B. The list of contents may showcontents searched for by adding at least one of the broadcasting timeand the broadcasting channel as criteria to search contents.

Referring to FIG. 9A, it is assumed that a user utters, “Find re-airingprograms.”

In this case, if the search condition is improper, the display apparatus100 may display a UI screen 910 asking whether to add criteria to searchcontents based on reply data received from the second server 300referring to FIG. 9B. Referring to FIG. 9C, when a user utters, “Yes,”the display apparatus 100 may display UI screen 920 including a list ofcontents based on reply data received from the second server 300. Inthis case, the list of contents may show contents searched by adding thebroadcasting time as criteria to search contents.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart which illustrates a method for controlling theserver according to an exemplary embodiment.

At operation S1010, text information corresponding to user voicescollected in the display apparatus is received from the displayapparatus.

At operation S1020, utterance components are extracted from the textinformation and a query to search contents is generated by using theextracted utterance components.

Specifically, when criteria to categorize the contents under an itemcorresponding to the extracted utterance components are less than apreset number, a query is generated by adding preset items as criteriato search contents.

Herein, items of which criteria to categorize contents are less than thepreset number may be at least one of the broadcasting type item and thescreen quality item. Further, preset items may be at least one of thebroadcasting time item and the broadcasting channel item.

The server may determine whether criteria to categorize contents underan item corresponding to the extracted utterance components based onpreset information regarding criteria to categorize contents are lessthan the preset number.

Further, the server may determine the preset items added as criteria tosearch contents based on user preference information.

Meanwhile, when searching contents is not performed with query generatedby adding preset items as criteria to search contents, query to searchcontents may be regenerated by using the extracted utterance components.

At S1030, the generated query is transmitted to the external serverwhich categorizes metadata of the content under each item and stores thesame.

The method for generating a query by considering preset items or userpreference information is described above by referring to FIGS. 1 to 9 .

Further, the method may provide non-transitory computer readable mediumwhich store programs implementing the controlling method according tothe exemplary embodiment.

Non-transitory readable medium indicate medium which store datasemi-permanently and can be read by devices, not medium storing datatemporarily such as register, cache, or memory. Specifically, the abovevarious applications or programs may be stored and provided innon-transitory readable medium such as CD, DVD, hard disk, Blu-ray disk,USB, memory card, or ROM.

Further, the above block diagrams illustrating the display apparatus andthe server do not describe a bus; however, communication between theelements in the display apparatus and the server may be performedthrough the bus. Each device may further include processors such as CPUand micro processor which perform the above various steps.

Further, the foregoing exemplary embodiments are merely exemplary andare not to be construed as limiting. The present teaching can be readilyapplied to other types of apparatuses. Also, the description of theexemplary embodiments is intended to be illustrative, and not to limitthe scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic device comprising: a receiver; acommunicator; and a processor configured to: receive a content signalvia the receiver, while a content corresponding to the content signal isdisplayed on a display, receive a user voice input, via a voicereceiver, if the user voice input is related to a content search,receive data corresponding to a search result which is based on the uservoice input and information corresponding to the displayed content, froma server, via the communicator, and process the received data to displaythe search result, and if the user voice input is related to a functioncontrol of the electronic device, perform a function corresponding tothe user voice input.
 2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein theinformation corresponding to the displayed content includes informationon a channel of the content.
 3. The electronic device of claim 2,wherein the search result includes information on at least one contentprovided in the channel.
 4. The electronic device of claim 3, whereinthe processor is configured to output a list including the at least onecontent to the display based on the search result.
 5. The electronicdevice of claim 4, wherein the list includes at least one of a title ofthe at least one content and a thumbnail of the at least one content. 6.The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the user voice input relatedto the function control includes one of a user voice input for changinga channel of the electronic device and a user voice input for changing avolume of the electronic device.
 7. The electronic device of claim 1,wherein the processor is configured to, if the user voice input isrelated to the content search, control the communicator to transmit, tothe server, data corresponding to the displayed content with a signalcorresponding to the user voice input.
 8. A method for controlling anelectronic device, the method comprising: receiving a content signal;while a content corresponding to the content signal is displayed on adisplay, receiving a user voice input; if the user voice input isrelated to a content search, receiving data corresponding to a searchresult which is based on the user voice input and informationcorresponding to the displayed content from a server, and processing thereceived data to display the search result, and if the user voice inputis related to a function control of the electronic device, performing afunction corresponding to the user voice input.
 9. The method of claim8, wherein the information corresponding to the displayed contentincludes information on a channel of the content.
 10. The method ofclaim 9, wherein the search result includes information on at least onecontent provided in the channel.
 11. The method of claim 10, furthercomprising: outputting a list including the at least one content to thedisplay based on the search result.
 12. The method of claim 11, whereinthe list includes at least one of a title of the at least one contentand a thumbnail of the at least one content.
 13. The method of claim 8,wherein the user voice input related to the function control includesone of a user voice input for changing a channel of the electronicdevice and a user voice input for changing a volume of the electronicdevice.
 14. The method of claim 8, further comprising: if the user voiceinput is related to the content search, transmitting, to the server,data corresponding to the displayed content with a signal correspondingto the user voice input.
 15. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumrecording instructions for execution by a processor of an electronicdevice to cause the electronic device to perform operations comprising:receiving a content signal; while a content corresponding to the contentsignal is displayed on a display, receiving a user voice input; if theuser voice input is related to a search of the content, receiving datacorresponding to a search result which is based on the user voice inputand information corresponding to the displayed content from a server,and processing the received data to display the search result, and ifthe user voice input is related to a function control of the electronicdevice, performing a function corresponding to the user voice input. 16.The non-transitory computer-recordable medium of claim 15, wherein theinformation corresponding to the displayed content includes informationon a channel of the content.
 17. The non-transitory computer-recordablemedium of claim 16, wherein the search result includes information on atleast one content provided in the channel.
 18. The non-transitorycomputer-recordable medium of claim 17, further comprising: outputting alist including the at least one content to the display based on thesearch result.
 19. The non-transitory computer-recordable medium ofclaim 18, wherein the list includes at least one of a title of the atleast one content and a thumbnail of the at least one content.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer-recordable medium of claim 15, wherein the uservoice input related to the function control includes one of a user voiceinput for changing a channel of the electronic device and a user voiceinput for changing a volume of the electronic device.